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Please help a laptop virgin buy his new machine...

B

Bust

Junior Member
As if the subject didn't say it all... 🙂

That's right, you don't know me and I don't know you. This is my first venture into the AnandTech forums, and I have come to you all seeking advice and counsel. The IRS tells me I paid way too much in taxes last year and they are giving me a considerable amount back. Along with some money I have saved up, I am using this to buy my first laptop.

Cost is somewhat of an issue. I would love to stay between $1500-$2000 but would consider spending more if I could be convinced it is worth it. I would say $3000 would be the absolute maximum.

My knowledge in this area is not quite "Noob" level, but far from "Comfortable". I've been poking around this forum as well as others and have been doing quite a bit of research. For instance, I know that since one of my main goals is long battery charge and good wireless performance, I should look for a Centrino model.

First I'll tell you my goals and what I would like, then I'll give you a couple examples of machines I've been looking at. You tell me what I can do differently to save some $$ or to maximize my experience.

1. Run Photoshop well
2. Burn DVDs
3. Watch DVDs and other video content, preferably in HD
4. Maximum battery length


I've fooled around with differnet customizations of the Inspiron 9200 and the HP dv1000 series notebooks.

Some things I do and don't like (or just don't know about):

9200:
* Love the 17" display
* Got the Centrino
* difference between XGA and UXGA displays?
* is the 60 GB 7200 rpm HD worth $60 more than the 80 GB (no rpm specified) HD?
* is the 9-cell battery worth $100 more than the 6-cell battery? Should I buy an extra battery?
* Wireless card; do I need a/b/g? Or just b/g? Are the Intel cards better than the Dell cards?

dv1000:
* 14" display is a little small
* like the 80 GB 5400 rpm HD
* at $1499, the price is much more attractive than the 9200.


Would I regret going with the 14" display? It's really the only thing holding me back from the HP.
Are HPs as reliable as Dells?
Should I get the service plans for either of these, or any other notebook for that matter?

I hope someone has the time to help me out! Would love to make my first purchase a keeper!

Thanks for reading.

-Matt
 
I would spend no more than $2000 on a notebook. It's just not worth it to pay the extra $1000 for 10% more performance and functionality.

A few things to keep in mind:
Bigger screen != Better screen. That 17" display might sound appealing, but any notebook with that kind of display will be heavy and have a large footprint. You might not think you want to move your machine around, but you'd be surprised how handy mobility can be. The 14" Widescreen on the HP machine is probably more than fine. Check the resolutions on those displays and make sure you get the resolution you want.

Bigger battery - May be a good idea, but it will add weight to the notebook.

Hard drive - 5400 RPM is good, 7200 RPM is better. The HDD is generally the worst bottleneck on a notebook, so get the fastest one you can.

Graphics - the Dell 9200 has it's own GPU, while the dv1000 uses Intel Extreme[ly slow] graphics. Keep this in mind if you want to play 3D games. This won't matter much for photoshop.

RAM - 512 MB minimum. You can upgrade the RAM yourself if there is an external slot.

I think the HP dv1000 will last a lot longer on a 6-cell battery than the 9200. Larger displays eat power like crazy. If I were faced with these choices I would go with the dv1000 because I value portability and battery life more than large displays and powerful GPUs.
 
Thanks Pandaren.

Mobility is definitely a major factor in my decision. That being said, I do not fear the bulk of the larger i9200 model. I'm a farily big guy myself. The i9200 is 1440x900 and the dv1000 is 1280x768. Now, being 3 inches smaller, will that mean better resolution on the 14" monitor?
 
Are you in college? If so apply for Apple's ADC (apple developers connection) at the student rate of $99. You then can get everything at major discounts for 1 purchase. At that time, you can get a 17" Powerbook fro $2195. OMG. When i saw that, I about nut in my pants. Then i realized i wasnt 18, so i couldnt apply for the ADC thing. I might have to settle for the 15" Powerbook instead.
 


17" PB for $2195 after a $99 membership is not that great of a deal. List is $2399 with the educational discount.

>Graphics - the Dell 9200 has it's own GPU, while the dv1000 uses Intel Extreme[ly slow] graphics. Keep this in mind if you want to play 3D games. This won't matter much for photoshop.

Well the 9200 will be better for photoshop.

Why

You have dual monitor out on the 9200, and it does DVI.

So looking down the road you can do a pretty kick but system using two external monitors or the laptop monitor and DVI out.

Then again the new 17" PB can do dualDVI and power the 30" apple cinema display. Now that would rock....
 
Try these guys.

Scroll down to the M37EW and play with a config. The screens are absolutely gorgeous. 1920x1200 WUXGA full HD resolution goodness. Here's what I got:


M37EW
15.4" widescreen 1920x1200 WUXGA
Pentium-M 1.8 GHz
1 GB DDR
Mobility Radeon 9700 Pro
60 GB hard drive
DVD-ROM/CD-RW (you can upgrade to a DVD burner easily)
802.11 b/g wireless

It's got 5 speakers (they're laptop speakers... but still), a built in webcam in the LCD panel lid, a firewire port, a flash card port, svideo out, vga out, serial out, 3 USB ports, a PCMCIA slot, gigabit lan, modem. The battery lasts about 2:15 hr, but apparently there's an option for an extra capacity battery.

$1734 USD

I'm really happy with it too. Their customer service was great, they shipped quickly. My biggest concern was having a good screen to work on, and so I could watch some HD content. With this laptop I can watch full 1080i resolution natively 🙂

Oh, and in case you're wondering, HL2 plays very nicely at 1280x800 I guess it is for 16:10 wide screen 🙂
 
Try the Dell refurb page. They had a couple of 9200's for under $1500 last night. I have heard that these machines are often times cancelled orders and are brand new. Anyhow, there are some nice discounts right now with some good configurations.
 
wow silverpig, that looks like an awesome laptop.

Sigh, I just worry about dead pixels, poor build quality, 1 year warranty.

That's why I want a T43, but for that kind of support I'll pay an extra $500 at least.

EDIT: That Boldata one is the Clevo M37EW, which is the Sager NP3790.
 
If you care about weight, dv1000 is better than 9200, which is really heavy🙂 9200 is for desktop replacement while dv1000 has more portability.

Besides, dv1000 is much cheaper~~

According to your post, dv1000 is enough for your application.

The main drawback of dv1000 is the Intel graphic card, but it works fine if you are not a 3-D game fan.
 
Originally posted by: Kalessian
wow silverpig, that looks like an awesome laptop.

Sigh, I just worry about dead pixels, poor build quality, 1 year warranty.

That's why I want a T43, but for that kind of support I'll pay an extra $500 at least.

EDIT: That Boldata one is the Clevo M37EW, which is the http://notebookforums.com/showthread.php?t=37218">Sager NP3790</a>.
Click to expand...

Build quality is excellent (night and day over my brother's Inspiron), and there isn't a single dead pixel. 🙂
 
Originally posted by: bayernjuven
If you care about weight, dv1000 is better than 9200, which is really heavy🙂 9200 is for desktop replacement while dv1000 has more portability.

Besides, dv1000 is much cheaper~~

According to your post, dv1000 is enough for your application.

The main drawback of dv1000 is the Intel graphic card, but it works fine if you are not a 3-D game fan.
Click to expand...

Thanks!

I ordered my i9200 yesterday. couldn't pass up the new 20% off offer along with my EPP 12% off.

 
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